Prefab Homes

Double-wides and trailer trash — in the U.S., these are some of the unattractive connotations of the term “prefab home.” For years, this form of home-building has been kept out of serious discussions of premium lifestyle.

Broadly defined, a prefab home is a home composed of various parts, almost like Lego blocks, which are prefabricated or premade in a factory and then assembled on-site.

Although such homes have long enjoyed popularity in countries like Sweden and Japan, only recently have they started to catch on in the U.S. thanks in part to a redefinition of the term ”prefab home.”

Today, the term is largely defined according to the aesthetics of modernism, an architectural style distinguished in large part by its simplicity with the use of glass, steel and concrete, straight lines and rectangular forms, and a minimum amount of ornamentation. By way of comparison, the extravagant trimmings on an old Victorian house would never be found on a modernist home.

buying a prefab home

There’s little point in getting too deep into the process of purchasing a prefab home if you haven’t already acquired the land to put it on. While these homes are low-impact in terms of land and environment, not all plots will work with all plans.

Options

There are a number of approaches to building a prefab — kits, panelized homes, modular homes, even homes built out of shipping containers — and they reflect the wealth of options available to the buyer. For our purposes, we’ll focus largely on modular homes.

Modular homes are designed with pre-established modules that are factory-built, but pieced together according to a wide variety of interests. Some websites feature programs that allow you to design a prefab yourself in cyberspace, and then send the plans to your architect or builder. You can also work directly with firms such as Alchemy Architects or Rocio Romero, who are designers in the business of modernist prefabs.

Price range

At the outset, the cost of a prefab home is fairly similar to the cost of any other custom home: Per square foot, prices generally range from $100 USD to $150 USD. The notable difference in cost is in the time required for construction.